Cops: Man Admits Killing Pregnant Girlfriend

May 18, 2009— -- Yuliya Galperina was looking forward to giving birth to her third child next week. Instead, she and her unborn baby are being mourned and her lover has been arrested in connection with their deaths.

Peter Ronchi, 45, of Marblehead, Mass., was arrested after he allegedly walked up to a police officer in a Norwalk, Conn., parking lot Sunday afternoon and told him, "I had a dream and it was a horrible nightmare, I think I killed my 8 1/2 month pregnant girlfriend after she told me I wasn't the father of the child she was carrying."

According to the Norwalk Police Department incident report on Ronchi's arrest, as the officer continued questioning him, Ronchi said the killing had occurred in Salem, Mass., and when the officer asked how he thought he had killed her, Ronchi said, "I used a knife."

Even though there was no blood on the man, the officer said he "began to suspect he might be telling the truth due to his odd behavior," according to the report.

When police searched Ronchi's minivan, which he told them was parked at a nearby Walmart, they found a bloody 6-inch hunting knife.

Under further questioning at the police station, the police report said, Ronchi allegedly confessed to killing Galperina.

"I just got upset, I killed her, I stabbed her with a knife," Ronchi allegedly told police.

At a hearing in Norwalk today, Ronchi agreed to be returned to Salem to face murder charges and he was ordered held on $5 million bond.

Salem Police Capt. Paul Tucker said officers found Galperina, 42, dead inside her Pope Street apartment building, her two children nearby, after a call came in to 911 around 7:40 a.m. Sunday for a woman who was not breathing.

She was due to give birth to her third child next week, but the fetus died also.

Ronchi, who is a licensed massage therapist, and Galperina appear to have had a "romantic relationship," Tucker said, but "we're unsure about his marital status."

The two children, a 3-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy, are not Ronchi's children, Tucker said. "We're not commenting on the unborn child at this time. Some of those questions will be answered later."